#classical languages

There are two characters with the same name. There are two Ajaxs.

I loved that. Its such a small and insignificant thing, but I've never seen two people named the same in any other story. Before reading it, I didn't think of it or I thought the authors believe it to be too confusing. But "Homer" did it. Just like it is common in real life.

"Such is the fate the gods have spun for frail mortals, that our lives are full of suffering, while they never feel pain."

Lingthusiasm Episode 88: No such thing as the oldest language

It's easy to find claims that certain languages are old or even the oldest, but which one is actually true? Fortunately, there's an easy (though unsatisfying) answer: none of them! Like how humans are all descended from other humans, even though some of us may have longer or shorter family trees found in written records, all human languages are shaped by contact with other languages. We don't even know whether the oldest language(s) was/were spoken or signed, or even whether there was a singular common ancestor language or several.

In this episode, your hosts Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne get enthusiastic about what people mean when we talk about a language as being old. We talk about how classifying languages as old or classical is often a political or cultural decision, how the materials that are used to write a language influence whether it gets preserved (from clay to bark), and how people talk about creoles and signed languages in terms of oldness and newness. And finally, how a language doesn't need to be justified in terms of its age for whether it's interesting or worthy of respect.

Click here for a link to this episode in your podcast player of choice or read the transcript here.

Here are the links mentioned in the episode:

Lingthusiasm episode 'Tracing languages back before recorded history'

'My Big Fat Greek Wedding- Give me any word and I show you the Greek root' on YouTube

Glottolog entry for 'classical'

Wikipedia entry for 'Complaint tablet to Ea-nāṣir'

Wikipedia entry for 'Bath curse tablets'

Wikipedia entry for 'Cuneiform'

Wikipedia entry for 'Mesopotamian writing systems'

Wikipedia entry for 'Home Sign'

Lingthusiasm episode 'Villages, gifs, and children: Researching signed languages in real-world contexts with Lynn Hou'

Wikipedia entry for 'Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language'

Wikipedia entry for 'Kata Kolok' (also known as Benkala Sign Language)

True Biz by Sara Nović on Goodreads

Gretchen's thread about reading True Biz

You can listen to this episode via Lingthusiasm.com, Soundcloud, RSS, Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also download an mp3 via the Soundcloud page for offline listening.

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Lingthusiasm is on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Mastodon, and Tumblr. Email us at contact [at] lingthusiasm [dot] com

Gretchen is on Bluesky as @GretchenMcC and blogs at All Things Linguistic.

Lauren is on Bluesky as @superlinguo and blogs at Superlinguo.

Lingthusiasm is created by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. Our senior producer is Claire Gawne, our production editor is Sarah Dopierala, our production assistant is Martha Tsutsui Billins, and our editorial assistant is Jon Kruk. Our music is ‘Ancient City’ by The Triangles.

Fulgor repente deorsum incidit ex altiora et contingit teneram signare libri pellem. Odore est potente et est mihi vertigo firma, velut si in abysso defigere mi oculos.

Dádhātu asmábhyam cákṣas yát ná vidyā́ma. Dádhātu asmábhyam gandhám yám ná grayā́ma. Dádhātu asmábhyam rávam ná huvema.

Fulgor repente deorsum incidit ex altiora et contingit teneram signare viri pellem. Odore est potente et est mihi vertigo firma. Caelum oculos defigit in me.

Translation: Out of the heights lightning reached down and touches upon the skin of a book and leaves its mark. The scent is strong, dizziness. It's like I'm staring into an abyss.

Grant us the sight that we may not know. Grant us the scent that we may not catch. Grant us the sound that we may not call.